Albergaria-a-Nova and São João da Madeira

As the hot weather continues unabated, the kilometres are starting to add up.  My poor feet are holding up well despite kilometre after kilometre pounding the asphalt. My brain has got a bit slow, and so this post is mainly pictures.


The views have been pretty  good as I make slow but steady progress.  The last couple of days the path has gone through some fairly run down areas, but also some quite affluent ones.

The path has gone through pretty villages, even some with gardens in the main square.   The buildings have been a real cross section, including many mansions, some falling into disrepair, others well cared for.  The civic buildings in the centre of town were also well cared for.




Though I have complained about the amount of roads / asphalt  I have been walking on, there have been some lovely forest paths to walk on too, though not too many!  Yesterday as I was walking down a path with industrial type buildings behind a wall on my left, and Eucalyptus forest on my right my attention was drawn to rustling by the wall.  A reasonably large snake was rapidly slithering along the accumulated litter at the foot of the wall.  I am afraid that I didn't take my eyes off it, nor did I pause to take a photo - I kept walking briskly, the snake kept slithering, and I didn't relax until I was sure we had parted company.

A few kilometres, after leaving Albergaria-a-Nova, there was a fascinating historical village, Bemposta, that the path passed through.
Casa do Arco


Today was much hillier, not arduously so, probably up and down a hundred metres or so, but still arduous in the heat.  My heart would sink when i got to a downhill as, as sure as night folls day, there would be an uphill to follow.   This undulating country meant some special views though.
Always power lines!

Along the way quite a few churches have been open, and I have managed to get a sing in most of them.

São João appears to be quite a large, quite affluent city.  There are several large industrial buildings, with striking, contemporary, architecture.  It is one of those places that you arrive at, breath a sigh of relief that all you have to do is find your abode for the night, and then discover you have another  4 - 5 kilometres to go.  Very disheartening at the end of a long hot day!

Comments

  1. B&I Step By Step10 October 2023 at 03:59

    You're capturing the mood of the adventure really well. Nothing like a snake right next to you to switch everything back on to super alert. Pleasingly an amicable parting of the ways.
    I remember coming into bigger towns (Burgos & Leon) on the Camino Frances and it looked so very close, however looks were definitely deceiving and it took ages to get to our ultimate destination having to walk to some relatively industrial type outer areas. Yes as you say a bit disheartening, such is the life on these trails. Keep smiling, oh and singing! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet12 October 2023 at 12:57

    Wait till you hear about the next part of the trail!

    ReplyDelete

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